Fabulous Forensic Fingerprints
Category:Developed for first grade Fabulous Forensic Fingerprints Student worthiness This activity has been tried at least once and worked well. Primary biological content area covered Identifying traits of the human body. Materials *Paper/Index cards *Pencils *Clear Scotch Tape *Magnifying Glasses *Graph Paper Handouts If there are simple written instructions that students would use during this activity they should be placed here and they can be cut and pasted into a word processing document for printing. If there are mechanisms within this web format to upload more complex documents with diagrams, we will learn as we go. Description of activity Students will examine their fingerprints and compare them to others. They will learn if thier fingerprints are loops, arches or swirls. Lesson plan #Students will first place a pience of paper on a surface and using a pencil, scribble heavily in an area on the paper. The purpose is to crate an area of loose graphite on the paper. #The students should press their right thumbs in the graphite area on the paper, left by the pencil until thier thumbs are covered. #Next have the students press their thumbs on the stick side of a piece of scotch tape. Then, have the students pull the tape off their finger leaving a clear fingerprint on the tape. They should stick the fingerprint on a piece of paper. Repeat the above directions for each finger on both hands. #Now Sudents should figure out what types of finger prints they have. There are three catagories ##Loops ##Swirls ##Arches # Have the students compare their fingerprints and see what is similar and different within each others' prints. # Graph the class findings based on what catagory of fingerprints eveyone in the class has. Potential pitfalls From your experience running the activity, list any difficulties you encountered. Where possible, incorporate any modifications of the activity that could reduce these pitfalls directly into the description above. Math connections *Students will learn how to present their findings on a graph. Literature connections *Ghostwriter Detective Guide : Tools and Tricks of the Trade by Susan Lurie and illustrated by Felipe Gallindo Art Connections * Students can create fun pictures using their fingerprints. Connections to educational standards This section is used to help teachers track and document the educational standards that the activity meets. What educational standards does this activity address? Enter the relevant section numbers here. Vermont standards can be found in web links at the bottom of this page. Feel free to add links to other standards. Next steps Another activity could be developed by touching glass beakers and brushing talcom powder on the beakers to see the fingerprints. This can then be related to law enforcement & forensics. To go farther with this activity, a crime scene could be created, where students need to brush the talcom powder on whatever has been touched and then try to figure out who "committed the crime" by looking at they three different classifications of fingerprints & searching through the class fingerprints. Citations and links *http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/fingerprints.html *http://www.fingerprintamerica.com/